Posted on 06/12/2014 6:53:33 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Listening to David Brat on election night, following his upset win over Eric Cantor in Virginia’s seventh congressional district, I heard a principled, free-market, pro-growth individual who is going to make an excellent Republican House member.
Mr. Brat, the Randolph-Macon economics professor, talked about pro-growth tax reform, spending limits, and entitlement reform. He wants to end the congressional bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and return them to the private sector. He opposes corporate cronyism in Washington. He’ll have no more special favors for the K Street crowd. He emphasizes the importance of the rule of law and property rights, which are so essential to our free-market system.
In other words, Brat seems to be saying that free-market capitalism is the best path to prosperity. My kinda guy.
However, during the late stages of his primary campaign, Brat railed against immigration reform and hammered Cantor on the issue. On this subject, he’s not my kinda guy. He is violating his free-market economic principles.
Breitbart reporter Jonathan Strong writes, “The story about how David Brat pulled off such a monumental surprise win starts, and almost ends, with immigration.” Strong details how Brat engaged in wild hyperbole, paraphrasing Brat as saying, “No member of Congress had done more to enact amnesty than Cantor.”
NRO contributor Fred Bauer reports that “Brat emphasized the effects of the White House immigration agenda on average working Americans, saying that a vote for Cantor was ‘a vote for open borders and lower wages.’”
And Robert Costa of the Washington Post reports that Brat hammered Cantor for championing a Republican version of the DREAM Act, which would enable some illegal immigrants who entered the country as children to qualify for in-state college tuition rates.
So while Mr. Brat’s free-market economics message sounds perfect, his anti-immigration-reform message is quite troublesome. This kind of rhetoric suggests that the Eric Cantor defeat might doom any immigration reform and the GOP effort to become the Big Tent party in the run-up to 2016.
Many conservatives disagree with me on this, and I respect that. However, I still believe that harsh language on illegals turns off legal Hispanic voters. It also turns off Asians, African Americans, young people, and women.
As I have written, in order to capture the presidency, the Republican party must follow the lead of Ronald Reagan and Jack Kemp and return to its Big Tent roots. The GOP must become inclusive by reaching out to everybody.
And as an economist, in fact a free-market economist, Mr. Brat surely knows that immigration reform will not lower wages and eliminate jobs for native Americans. Other immigration opponents routinely use this argument. But it is false. It is unproven.
A new study from the University of California-Davis and Colgate University strongly rebuts this position. The researchers write: “A lot of people have the idea there are a fixed number of jobs. But immigrants can boost productivity of the overall economy, because then the pie grows and there are more jobs for other people as well, and there is not a zero-sum tradeoff between natives and immigrants.”
In fact, the study points out how there are rising wages for college- and non-college-educated native workers along with increased immigration. The study’s authors argue that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — the so called STEM professions — raise wages for college-educated workers by 7 to 8 percentage points and non-college-educated laborers by 3 to 4 percentage points.
Another study, from the Financial Services Forum and Standard & Poor’s, shows that immigrants represent 13 percent of the U.S. population, but account for nearly 20 percent of small-business owners; immigrant-owned small businesses employed nearly 5 million Americans in 2010; more than 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants; and immigrants launched half of the nation’s top start-ups, which account for virtually all net new-job creation, according to the Kauffman Foundation.
We live in an era of labor and capital globalization. That is why we need these immigrant entrepreneurs, both skilled and unskilled. Millions of immigrants came to America in the past and helped grow our economy at rapid rates. It is no different today.
And if the 11 million illegals who live here obey the law, pay taxes, learn English, and understand the Constitution, they deserve legal status. Citizenship is an issue way down the road. And yes, we must include border security, where unfortunately Obama’s lax policies have contributed to the calamitous surge in illegal-immigrant children. But temporary visas or work permits should be part of a sensible reform package. The E-Verify system can work.
So, Mr. Brat, as a free-market economist, surely you know there’s no reason why all this cannot be done. Hopefully you will come to believe that sensible immigration reform is pro-growth and pro-GOP.
Kudlow is another pollyanna on immigration. And I’ve had it with such morons.
Then the GOP must be destroyed. Reaching out to pro-abortion, anti-gun, and pro-amnesty types will lose them their base.
Bite me, Larry.
/johnny
Larry Kudlow can s@ck it. Don’t confuse immigration reform, meaning what in the heck we need to do with all these dozens of millions of ILLEGALS with actual law abiding, LEGAL immigrants.
Frankly, I don’t give a crap what Larry Kudlow thinks.
Larry Kudlow makes his living spouting establishment Republicanism as the token voice of the not-too-vocal loyal opposition. I’m tired of these ideological traitors.
Secure the border first, then we’ll talk about the ones already in the country.
Now lets target RINO TN Sen lamar alexander..OATH BREAKER OF 2 TERMS AND OUT!
State Rep Joe Carr has a conservative record you can check out.
Free market economics has nothing to do with securing the border.
” However, I still believe that harsh language on illegals turns off legal Hispanic voters. It also turns off Asians, African Americans, young people, and women.”
Oh really? I’m two of those categories and i’m turned off by illegal immigration. he’s the one with “wild-eyed extremist” views.
He's put it in a beer bong and chugging it down!
This is your mind on drugs.
Let's import more uneducated, unskilled workers, while millions of our own uneducated, unskilled workers collect welfare every month.
This is your mind on crack cocaine.
A corporatist who preaches privatized profits and subsidized losses chimes in for cheap labor.
From Kudlow "Many conservatives disagree with me on this, and I respect that. However, I still believe that harsh language on illegals turns off legal Hispanic voters. It also turns off Asians, African Americans, young people, and women."
With the exception of blacks, that is simply not true (90+% of black Americans share the exact same voting behavior, so this is purely factual observation).
Being against illegal immigration and finding solutions other full citizenship is not offensive...only to those who are looking to be offended. Brat made not statements during that campaign that are offensive, not that can be easily twisted to be offensive. Talking about this issue effectively does not require Tancredo style bombast. One could share a much more conservative view of illegals and still talk about it in the same ways as GW Bush and others. Brat is an example, and there are countless others. Some make mistakes giving the opposition words to use against us (Steve King, who I greatly admire is an example who has made unnecessary statements).
It is quite possible to make a strong case (and winning case) for better incremental reforms to our immigration system other than granting citizenship or rewarding lawlessness. The strawman arguments need to be countered....it's not the Senate bill or you hate brown people, for God's sake.
So be it. You either believe in sovereignty or you don't. As I've told black friends who ask me "what is the republican party going to do for me," I answer. Other than fight for your right to be a free man, nothing. You either believe in freedom or you don't. And freedom should not be something that's only pursued by white people. There's no "white man's freedom," and "black man's freedom," there's only freedom.
The same with sovereignty. Try getting into Mexico without a visa. Try immigrating to any European country, or even Canada, by just walking through the gates. And as Milton Friedman used to say, as much as he was for open borders in theory, as long as America is a welfare state, we can't afford to have open borders.
Larry Kudlow is a hack
Immigration reform is NOT synonymous with amnesty. I am in favor of immigration reform. I oppose any amnesty to any illegal.
Larry is unfortunately ignorant and close-minded—a terrible combination—the illegal issue.
Milton Friedman: “you can’t have free immigration and a welfare state”. See http://www.heritage.org/research/commentary/2007/06/look-to-milton-open-borders-and-the-welfare-state
I generally like Larry Kudlow, but he’s so very wrong on this. He’s ignoring the economic concept of externalities. Yes, immigration frees up the labor market! That’s all benefit, right? Wrong! There are costs involved. Massive costs.
1) The drain on the welfare system. Despite what every immigration enthusiast tells me, every Mexican I see at Walmart is paying with an EBT card. Every. Single. One. 100%
2) The drain on the health care system. Now that we are all truly in this together, how can adding more at the bottom possibly help?
3) The drain on the criminal justice system. Facts are racist.
4) The political cost. No matter how much outreach the GOPe does, the vast majority of immigrants from the 3rd world will vote for Democrats. They want free stuff. Their culture has no history of any of the traditions or institutions that have made this country EXCEPTIONAL.
My ancestors didn’t leave the 3rd world to have it follow them here. Dismantle the welfare system and Obamacare, then we can talk about allowing more in. Will they still want to come? I doubt it.
“The GOP must become inclusive by reaching out to everybody.”
Yeah, Kudlow - when is it going to reach out to conservatives?
You cant have free immigration period, it destroys the fabric of society
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